Olympics | Maertens "overwhelmed" by 400m freestyle gold

PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) — Germany’s Lukas Maertens could barely believe his eyes when he saw the words “Olympic gold medalist” next to his name on the giant screen at the Paris La Defense Arena.

“I was overwhelmed. I stopped, looked at the scoreboard and thought, ‘nah, that can’t be right’,” the 22-year-old said after his triumph in the men’s 400m freestyle at the Paris Olympics on Saturday.

“That was anything but foreseeable, after this season and after all the exertion, even if all the performances beforehand were good,” he added.

Maertens led the final from the outset, touching the wall three minutes, 41.78 seconds, more than four tenths of a second ahead of silver medalist Elijah Winnington of Australia. South Korea’s Kim Woo-min claimed the bronze.

The result made the unassuming Maertens his country’s first men’s Olympic gold medalist since Seoul 1988.

“I would say it was a controlled race, a solid race,” Maertens said. “The last few meters hurt a bit. My time is okay, I don’t have to hide. During the race, I thought I was swimming against my training colleagues in Magdeburg [Germany].

“You have to come up with a plan. You can’t think you have to, and have to, and have to. I don’t have to do anything. That’s how I approached it. That’s the motto of my season.”

Maertens entered the final as one of the gold medal favorites, having recorded the fastest time this year. But he made a conscious effort not to put any undue pressure on himself before the race.

“The goal was definitely a medal,” he said. “If it had been bronze, it would have been okay. I was thinking about gold, and now it’s actually come true.”